2012 Garnet Hill Score-O Rules and Map Notes

Updated Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Rules

There are 27 controls, and the control descriptions are on the back of the map.

Controls may be visited in any order.

All controls have the same value (1 point).

Ties in total number of points will be broken by fastest time.

Time limit is 2 hours.

Penalties will be 1 point for each minute or part of a minute overtime.

Map Notes

This map was originally developed 15+ years ago for ski-orienteering. It has been updated many times since then, but almost exclusively in regards to depicting the ski trails. This is its first use other than in winter, and everyone should recognize that it is being used for something other than for what it was intended. It also was made long before the advent of some of the newer technologies that are now used for mapping, such as geo-referencing.

The map has now been geo-referenced, which made it more possible to use control locations that are not simply along the ski trails. Many distortions in the original map have been fixed, and the trails and streams should be in good position relative to each other. The contours proved more difficult to adjust; where they obviously did not fit other features they were modified.

The maintained ski trails are shown in the standard green used in ski-O. Almost all of them are clear enough for easy walking/running, and none are a real problem. The mountain bike/snowshoe trails are shown in black using the “small footpath” symbol. Occasionally these can be hard to follow, and/or hard to notice when crossing them. There is one additional bike trail that did not get mapped (#6, on the south side of the central stream between the two areas of tailings), but that should not come into play in this event.

The vegetation levels (shades of green on foot-O maps) are not normally shown in ski-O, and their depiction here is approximate at best. At this time of year, the leaves are just beginning to fall, and much of the forest is denser than shown. Be prepared for the 'white' forest to actually be light green, and some of the light green to be medium green. Dense vegetation has been avoided in the areas around controls as much as possible, but some off-trail control-to-control passages may prove difficult.

NEW: There is far more rock all over the map than is shown. Since this map was made for ski-O, nothing was mapped which was not at least 1 meter high (and thus visible even with a thick blanket of snow), and most of the 1 meter or more rock that is mapped is along or near the ski trails. A few more prominent boulders have been added, but most are simply not shown. As is often the case, the rocks shown on the map are generally there, but many are not shown.

The “Dangerous Area” (shown by purple cross-hatching) is marked as such because of the biathlon shooting range. The actual range is shown by the black arrow smack in the middle of the map. There will be 22 caliber shooting going on during the orienteering event, so be sure to stay out of the marked area. Also, the biathlon folks will be running some penalty loops, so stay out of the way of anyone you see running around with a rifle.

Have fun, and be sure to pass along any specific comments about the map.